Wilford Woodruff Healed from Lameness by Prayer in an Alligator Swamp

In March 1835, while serving a mission in the southeastern United States, Wilford Woodruff and his companion, identified in one account as Asa Dodds, traveled through difficult, swampy terrain. After Woodruff was left alone in an alligator swamp, he suffered severe pain and lameness in his knee or knees and could not continue. His companion had left him; accounts describe him as intending to return home or seeking help. Woodruff knelt in the mud and prayed for relief, and he was healed immediately. Able to continue his journey, he went on with his missionary travels. One account dates the incident to March 24, after ten miles of travel through mud.

In a later 1880 discourse, Woodruff clarified that this journey through the swamp country of the Southern States spanned approximately 180 miles through mud and water. He noted that the affliction he suffered was an attack of rheumatism, which caused significant inflammation and pain in his joints or muscles. Regarding his companion's departure, Woodruff recalled that the man left specifically to continue his journey down the Mississippi River and return home. Reflecting on the miracle in that same discourse, Woodruff testified: 'I felt the operation of the Holy Spirit upon me; I arose from my knees, the pain having left me.'